Ignite began through an experien

^{Ignite began through an
experience at a youth rally in Nashville TN. It was amazing for me to see
Youth get so excited about God. When I returned to Corinth I was talking
about this with a coworker and he said that it was a shame we could not
have something like that here. So it began. The next weekend we gathered
a group of pastors and youth pastors and the stage was set for what we
have here today. The event in Nashville although good was not as large
as I thought it could have been if more than one church had been
involved. It has long been a
dream of mine to see local churches work together for the good of the
community thus for the good of the kingdom of Christ. Working together we function not as independent churches or
denominations but as The Church showing the love of Christ in the community. We hope to
accomplish several things with this ministry. Each generation is
impacted by its culture and unfortunately often defined by it. Studies show that Youth are saturated with media influence. Teens
listen to an average of 54 hrs of radio a week. 42% of the top selling
CDs contain sexual content that is “pretty” to “very” explicit. 25% of teen targeted radio segments contain sexual content. If we can show them good poplar music that has a good message of
family values we may be able to influence them for the rest of their
lives. Another study showed that what we like when we are young we will
tend to like for the rest of our lives. Remember the music from your
high school era? Do you still like it? There are more teens than ever
before but the percentage of Bible believing Christians is dropping
drastically WWII-65%, Baby Boomers-35%, Generation X-16%, Millennia's-expected
at 4% (source Barna Study Group, Sept 2006). In bringing a concert with
a message, some have wondered if it would not be better to charge a
nominal fee for what is perceived by some to be an entertainment event. My response to this is that by charging a nominal fee for this
event we turn it into an entertainment event (you pay for
entertainment, movies, concerts and other forms) I feel that if you
charge for an event like this we will limit the impact that we could
have on non Christians or Christians that are only so by association
with their parent's religion and as so many youth see religion as an
empty almost ceremonial duty that takes place on Sunday morning between
10am-noon and God is nothing more than a storybook character. This
impact that I am speaking of is to hopefully bring in this teen on the
fence that might not spend his date or beer money on a “Christian”
concert and be able to experience God in the way He wants us to
experience Him as a joyful worship experience where in a powerful
message he will be urged to experience God in a relationship rather than
in empty religion. We will get the money for this, as I faithfully
believe this is the will of God if this is a problem with anyone we ask
not for their money but their service and participation. This is also
for me not as much of an entertainment event as a wonderful
outreach opportunity that we offer for the community to participate in.
We welcome all to participate in this event and to take ownership
in this ministry.

In His Service

Mat Johnson

President Ignite}